Lindsey D.'s ramblings on the moving image!

And the Liebster award goes to… TMP!

Jo Gabriel aka “MonsterGirl” of one of my absolute favorite blogs, The Last Drive In, has been kind enough to pass The Liebster Award along to TMP! If you’re not already reading The Last Drive In you should give it a look. Jo cooks up some really interesting features including “A Trailer a Day Keeps the Boogeyman Away!” and “Postcards from Shadowland.”

From what I understand, the rules of this award are as follows:
-Share 11 facts about yourself
-Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who passed the award to you
-Pass the award along to 11 more bloggers and tack on 11 questions of your own for them to answer!

11 random things about Lindsey:
1. There is not a single thing in this world that I love more than puppies. (And by “puppies” I mean actual puppies and full-grown dogs. They’re all babies to me. Even if they outweigh me and stand 6′ tall on their hind legs.)

BABY BEAGLES. If you don’t love them, we can’t be friends. (Image: teebolt.com)

2. My music taste is pretty eclectic. My favorite genres range from doo-wop to punk to British pop to country.
3. Though I’m now in the process of growing out my natural hair color, I spent six years or so dying it every color under the sun. I have actually dyed my hair every color of the rainbow except green. My signature color was red. My natural color is dark blonde.
4. I can play the clarinet and bass clarinet. I started with the bass in 5th grade.
5. My favorite task as a library volunteer is to “shelf read,” finding misplaced items and returning them to alphabetical order. I’m a total freak for alphabetizing. (Nerd alert!)
6. Michigan’s upper peninsula is my favorite place in the entire world.
7. Shirley Jackson is my favorite writer.
8. I was vegetarian for eight years.
9. I own a Kindle and use it every day, but I still prefer physical copies of books.
10. My favorite artistic movement is the expressionist movement (German expressionism in particular, but I love it all).
11. My greatest hobby (aside from spending 3,000 hours a month watching movies) is photography. One of my photographs has appeared in a temporary exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Q&A:1. The Addams Family or The Munsters?

Duh nuh nuh nuh *clap clap* (Image: thirdage.com)

Tough questions right out of the gate! I love both of these wacky families, but the awesomeness Lurch and Thing T. Thing give the Addams’ a slight advantage in my book (ever so slight!).

2. If you had to pick the most compelling cinematic ghost story which would you choose?
Off of the top of my head, I’ll go with The Amityville Horror (1979) because 1) I love the film and 2) It’s based on a real family, which begs the question — are they money-hungry cons who want to sell a nutty story, or is every single member of the family actually psychotic?

3. Who is your absolute favorite actor/actress and what would you like to ask them if you had the chance?
Cary Grant and Barbara Stanwyck. I wouldn’t be able to ask them anything. I’d just tell them how much I love their work and then pass out from excitement. (If able to be revived after passing out, I may ask Cary Grant to marry me.)

4. Which do you feel is the best film adaptation of a literary work?To Kill a Mockingbird and The Grapes of Wrath are absolutely perfect adaptations in my book (no pun intended). O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? is a fantastic re-imagining of a classic epic. Big Fish is phenomenal, too, and I actually enjoy the film more than the book in that case (though I enjoy both).

5. What director do you feel really pushed or pushes the boundaries of film making and why?
Ida Lupino. Not only did she break into the male-dominated field of directing, but she also took near-complete creative control over most of the films she directed, AND she used her talents as a director to tackle issues that weren’t openly discussed in her time, like rape.

The amazing Ida Lupino (Image: listal.com)

6. Can we take Citizen Kane off the number one film of all time list for just a moment and suppose there is another, what would that be?
I always have trouble answering questions like this, because I don’t even have a single “all-time favorite” film myself. The Great Dictator? The Best Years of Our Lives? (Why are only WWII films coming to mind?) THE PRESSURE IS TOO MUCH, I CAN’T CHOOSE.

7. You’re trapped in an elevator for 26 hours, who would you want to be sweaty and thirsty with?
A ghost. Any friendly ghost. They can create spots of cold air to fix the sweat problem, and that could air could lead to condensation on the walls of the elevator, which would provide a tiny, temporary solution to the thirst problem.

8. If you were an archetypal character from either, literature, film or television who would it be?
I would be what tvtropes.com refers to as “The Snark Knight,” a la Enid Coleslaw. I’m not sure if it always shows in my blog posts, but I have an incredibly cynical and sarcastic sense of humor.

9. Who in your opinion is THE worst film, television or cartoon villain of all time?
The frogs in the movie Frogs. They aren’t scary! But that film is a heck of a lot of fun to watch.

10. Who is the most sympathetic character in a film?
Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. The first thing that came to mind when I read this question was the scene where she has to burn all of her keepsakes. If that scene doesn’t tug at your heart-strings, YOU DON’T HAVE A HEART.

11. What novel would you like to see adapted to the screen?
“The Séance” by John Harwood or “The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield. I included both of these in my ‘Adaptation Month’ book-fest in June of last year here on the blog, and I’m still anxiously waiting for films to be announced of each. Might never happen, but I’m holding out hope. They’re both fantastic thrillers that would adapt so well for the screen.

And the award goes to…
anyone who wants to answer my questions! Next Thursday I’ve got another award post coming that I have to pick fifteen people for, and quite frankly I’m too lazy to spend the time selecting a total of twenty-six people in the middle of term paper finalization/final exam preparation week.

My questions for you:
1. Who is your favorite character actor?
2. What is the one film that you would recommend to anyone regardless of their personal tastes?
3. What is your least favorite genre of films?
4. Which fictional character (from a film, book or television series) do you most closely identify with?
5. What is your favorite film soundtrack or score?
6. Do you take notes when watching a film for review? If so, do you use the good ol’ standby of pen and paper or do you use your cell phone/tablet/laptop?
7. Have you watched every single film of a specific actor, actress or director? (And of course, tell us who it is if the answer is yes!)
8. Congratulations! You’ve been given the opportunity to travel back in time to any film premiere in the year of 1939. Which premiere will you attend?
9. Who is your favorite non-monster movie villain?
10. What is your favorite city in which many films are set, and what are your favorite films to be set in that city?
11. You can only watch the films of a single director for the next year of your life. Which director do you choose?

Love your answers. I also love that you’re a photographer… of course, like I’m a musician. It gives us that extra way to lens the films we love so much. Your puppies are adorable., they give us so much love and joy. I’ve named a few of my cats after stars that I adore… Great job kiddoe, and so glad to pass on the celebratory good vibes… Cheers Joey
PS my very first job was in a library, but my wild hair used to distract the librarians to no end, they hated me, but i loved being around books….

My dog is named Wizard, after The Wizard of Oz. We call him Wiz for short. :)

When I started volunteering at the library I had bright red and pink hair. The librarians didn’t mind because I’m good with the patrons and I work at a much faster pace than the rest of the volunteers. I did get weird looks from some of the parents when I would work in the children’s section though, haha.

Enjoyed the post! You don’t have to give me the award either but I will answer your questions cuz that’s the kind of hairpin I am (it is still Cagney month).

1. Edward Everett Horton
2. Show People
3. Modern Horror
4. Linda in Holiday (1938)
5. Lawrence of Arabia by Maurice Jarre
6. I do take notes, especially if the film is long or complicated. I use a bunch of different devices throughout the day so I find it is easiest to write my notes in Gmail and then email them to myself.
7. I have this weird thing about that. I don’t like to see everything that someone has made because then there is no more. I love the thrill of discovery and the hope that the next film I see will be the best one yet. That’s why Kurasawa’s Lower Depths is languishing on my shelf and why I have not yet seen F.W. Murnau’s Last Laugh. I will see them eventually but it will be bittersweet.
8. Gunga Din is my premier of choice. Especially if I get to meet the cast! Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Sam Jaffe, Victor McLaglen… Bliss! And the movie itself is just so much fun!
9. Lon Chaney’s Blizzard in The Penalty (1920). His legs were cut off accidentally by an incompetent physician and now he is plotting to steal a new pair. Oh, and he is also planning to start an anarchist uprising to make in the ruler of San Francisco. And he is a musical genius. And he is dating a policewoman. What’s not to love?
10. Boring choice, I know, but Los Angeles and the greater LA area. Double Indemnity, Murder, My Sweet, The Big Sleep. I live pretty nearby so it is fun to take a look at the old locations.
11. King Vidor. His output was massive, varied and of the highest quality and he had a looooong career. Hey, it’s a whole year!

Interesting answer for 7! I’ve never thought of it that way. I’m more of an “I love (insert actor/actress) and I need to see all of their films NOW” type, but I haven’t thought of how I’ll feel when I get to the end of the Barbara Stanwyck project I’m working on. It will be quite sad not to have any new Stanwyck films to discover!
King Vidor is a great choice for 11, too. :)

Congrats on the award! You listed some great questions that I’ll probably answer on my own blog sometime this weekend. And like others have said, you don’t need to give me an award, I just like answering questions!

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